In the zone
by AdotD
Summary: She zones out; he zones in. AU sasusaku one-shot.


**A/N: I was on the bus today and recalled an embarrassing memory. Naturally, a one-shot tumbled out of it. Here it is. Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Well, you already know.  
**

* * *

Sasuke was finished with his exam early, with fifteen minutes to spare. Thermo is a difficult subject to many students, but it just clicked for him. He could have left early, but he decided to stay in his seat.

Glancing across the medium sized classroom, he found the familiar pink hair he was looking for.

The girl was biting her bottom lip, brows drawn together in great concentration. She seemed to be stuck on one problem. From what he could see, it seemed like it was the very last question on the exam.

His eyes drifted from her face to her paper, back to her face, and then finally on her chest. She was wearing a small green v-neck shirt. It was a perfect fit on her; slightly loose, but it hugged the contours of her body just right. Her cleavage teased his line of sight. For a few seconds, he was entrenched. He noticed that she has been wearing v-necks lately. He supposed that they were comfortable enough, yet trendy. He liked that.

.

Sasuke first noticed this girl when she walked in late on a lecture. Her bright pink hair caught his attention; it was different compared to the sea of black, brown, and blonde haired people in the classroom. After apologizing profusely to the professor, she took the seat next to him, took her notebook out, and completely zoned in on the lecture.

Not once did she notice him looking at her.

He took note of her smooth skin, slender body, and startling green eyes. For a moment, he almost believed that he was arrested by the mere presence of the girl. He waited for the her to notice him so he could apply his 'signature smirk', and maybe come home with her sometime. But she did not spare him a single glance.

From the moment she sat down until the end of the lecture, her eyes were either on the professor, the powerpoint presentation, or on her own notebook.

Ever since then, he made the effort sit somewhere across from the girl; for the view. She kept him awake during the boring lectures. He enjoyed observing her. He was amused by how she could focus 110% of her attention on the professor _all the time_.

.

Sasuke opened his booklet to the final page and glanced at the final question. Ah, one of those derivation problems. He smirked. He solved it in less than five minutes.

"Time is up," called the professor.

With one more look towards the pink-haired girl (who was furiously scribbling down last minute equations), Sasuke finally stood up to submit his exam. He wanted to beat the crowd.

* * *

"Forehead."

No response.

"Sakuraaaa."

No response.

"FOREHEAD!" **–jab-**

"OW! Ino! What the hell?"

"You're spacing out again. Stop it! Ugh, did you even catch what I was just talking about?"

"Ugh. Something about a Chanel purse that you wanted? I don't know, Ino! Stop distracting me! I'm trying to figure out if I answered that last problem on my exam correctly!"

Ino sighed. "Sakura, seriously! You'll find out how you did in two days anyway. Could you at least stop being such an overachiever and let it rest? Your eyes were glued on the ground. Quit zoning out, you're such a weirdo."

The pinkette rolled her eyes. She was really bothered by that last question on her Thermo exam. Stupid derivations.

"If I was such an overachiever, I wouldn't be thinking about that question in the first place," she sighed. "Ugh, whatever. Let's just hurry up. Maybe we'll get seats on the bus this time."

The two girls practically power walked to the bus stop. They made it just in time to-

"Ah, dammit. It's full!" Sakura moaned.

"Just push people in! I don't want to wait for another 20 minutes. It's been such a long ass day." Ino suggested.

Sakura briefly thought about it. It had been a stressful day indeed, and all she wanted to do was go home and relax. So, she pushed through.

_-push-_

_-push-_

"Excuse us!" Ino pushed (and winked) at some male students, who gladly made some room.

The girls were relieved. They managed to somehow find a spot to stand on inside the cramped bus. They were packed like sardines, but it was much better than having to stand outside in the scorching heat for another 20 minutes.

Ino started talking about window shopping again, while Sakura's mind drifted back to her exam.

.

"Fuck, dobe. We're cramped in here again because of you."

"Shut up, teme. I had to go say bye to Hinata. You could have gone before me!"

"Tch. You're driving today. Remind me not to carpool with you anymore." Sasuke retorted.

The blond scratched his head. "Oh shit, that's right. My baaaaaad. At least there are some cuties on the bus today. Look at those two over there," Naruto commented. "Eh? That girl is like, staring at you or something," he added.

Girls on the bus always stared at Sasuke. He was used to it. He learned not to make any eye contact with them. He made the mistake once, and earned a stalker as soon as he got off the bus.

Naruto started to snicker.

"What?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto signaled him to look ahead. And so he did.

Sasuke Uchiha smirked.

.

_I swear I wrote down the fundamental equation for Gibbs free energy. And then what did I do after that? Did I write the correlation…_

Sakura was deep in thought.

_I wrote down the equations for Helmholtz and internal energy, but were those necessary?_

"-kura.."

_Crap, I don't think those were necessary at all.._

"-kuraaaaaaaa…"

_Wait, yeah they are! Ugh, that last problem was worth fifteen points, dammi-_

-**JAB-**

"OW! What the…" she jumped. "What the hell, Ino!" She quickly turned her head towards the blonde haired girl.

Her best friend's eyes were wide like saucers.

"What? Seriously, I'm allowed to zone out. I don't care. Stop jabbing me!"

Ino leaned closer to Sakura's ear and whispered.

"You know, you chose a good spot to randomly stare at, while zoning out."

Sakura cocked her head and raised a brow. "What are you…"

She decided to retrace where her head and eyes had been before Ino hit her. Slowly, she angled her head from facing Ino back towards where it was previously before, eyes following the movement.

turning…

turning…

turning…

I think that's the spot…

So what was I staring at?

What's the…spot….?

…..?

Sakura mentally freaked out when she finally realized that while she was zoning out, her eyes were absently staring at someone's…_crotch area_.

_Oh…my…goodness._

After this realization, Sakura knew that the logical way to handle this embarrassing situation was to quickly turn around and just pretend that it never happened.

But her eyes slowly traced its way upwards. From the...crotch area to the torso, to the neck, and then finally to the face of the owner.

.

_Holy hell. He's…hott._

_Look at that face. That...complexion, that hair, those eyes, that smirk!_

Her eyes widened. Smirk?

It dawned on her that the owner of the...body part she had absentmindedly stared at (for who knows how long) _saw_ her staring. In fact, she was sure that he _watched_ her stare at his…ahem.

Their eyes met. She involuntarily held her breath. He cocked an eyebrow.

Sakura turned all possible shades of red in about half a second. She quickly turned around and thanked the heavens for the bus's impeccable timing-it had reached her stop.

Dragging a snickering Ino with her, she quickly fought to get out of the bus, amidst the sea of people. As soon as she set one foot outside the bus, she whirled to her friend and was ready to mumble all sorts of profanities when she sensed a presence behind her.

She turned around only to find the same damn (_tooootally hott_) guy from the bus.

He leaned in close to her face and said, "I usually charge for that, but…" before pulling back and stalking away with his amused blond friend.

"W-what the hell are you talking about?" Sakura managed to ground out after him.

He didn't stop walking, but turned his head and made sure she saw him –

"Forehead, is it just me or is that gorgeous guy _really _staring at your boobs?"

* * *

The following Thermo class

She arrived to the classroom early. She was eager to find out what she received on the exam. She watched as students trickled in one by one, until the professor finally showed up. He had a huge stack of graded exam papers with him.

As soon as he set it on the table, students moved from their seats and collected their exams, Sakura was one of them.

After a couple of minutes, she returned to her seat, exam in hand.

She flipped on the second page and saw '95%' written neatly in red ink.

_Dammit._

She flipped to the last page and saw that points were shaven off from the very last question.

Her face fell. So close, but not good enough.

Everyone else had finally settled down their seats, and the professor began talking about the exam results. He had briefly mentioned that one student received a perfect score.

Sakura rolled her eyes. _Some overachiever_.

.

The professor was in the middle of discussing an exam question when one of the doors opened. He quickly stopped and turned his attention to the latecomer.

Sakura was busy checking her calculations. She rarely paid attention to anyone in the class but the professor until –

"Ah, Sasuke Uchiha. Come pick up your exam. 100%. Good job."

Sakura quickly jerked her head from her paper to the front of the classroom (the movement akin to a whiplash).

"Aa."

Her jaw dropped. In front of the classroom was the 'overachiever'.

The same damn (_gorgeous_) guy from two days ago.

After collecting his exam, the guy quickly looked around the classroom. His eyes quickly swept over Sakura before heading towards her direction.

He took the seat next to hers.

He quietly placed his exam on the desk; turned his booklet to the very last page, which showed a neatly worked out derivation problem. The very same one that haunted Sakura's dreams for nearly two days.

The professor continued his discussion, but Sakura was not paying attention anymore.

She was glancing at the guy's – Sasuke, was it? – exam booklet.

Damn. She forgot THAT equation? She silently berated herself.

"I could show you how it's done, if you want," came a...sexy voice.

Her train of thought was abruptly broken. She turned her head towards Sasuke. He wasn't looking at her, but he was slightly turned to his side. Towards her.

Sakura's anger flared. _The nerve of this guy!_ She was ready to stick her delicate hand towards his face and flip him the bird, but she knew better.

This…Sasuke guy was good at Thermo. She knew better than to pass up on an opportunity to score higher in that class.

She sighed and turned her head towards the professor once again.

"I'll walk you later," he added.

Her breath hitched.

Sakura did not know if she could handle any more of this guy's presence. He was...simply arresting. His voice sounded awfully sexy and…

…she realized that she could no longer focus on the professor alone.

Her '110%-attention-on-the-lecture' record (as Ino offhandedly dubbed it), was broken.

That was a first.

.

Sasuke briefly glanced at his seat mate. He smirked, nay, smiled. Actually smiled. From now on, Thermodynamics was his favorite class.

* * *

**Yayyyy. I just _had_ to write it. Comments are much appreciated! :)**


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